State Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) was confirmed as lieutenant governor Monday by the state Senate. He will fill a vacancy created when John Garamendi was elected to Congress late last year. Maldonado said he planned to take the oath of office Tuesday after resigning from the Legislature and would be an activist lieutenant governor focusing on economic issues. "I'm going to work every day for jobs, jobs and jobs," he told reporters. The lieutenant governor becomes acting governor when the sitting governor leaves the state.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Wednesday appealed a court ruling that would reduce initial payments to policyholders of failed Executive Life Insurance Co. under proposed rehabilitation plans. The ruling last week by Superior Court Judge Kurt Lewin, who is overseeing Executive Life's conservatorship, would cut payouts to policyholders to 72 cents on their investment dollar, instead of the 89 cents on the dollar that would have been paid under a state-supported plan.

November 6, 2009 | Joe Mathews, Joe Mathews, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a fellow at the New America Foundation.

Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger, I hear you're searching for a new lieutenant governor. If I may be so bold, I can think of one Californian who is the right fit for the job. Me. Now that Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is vacating the office to take a seat in Congress, I know you're considering smart politicians of both parties. But selecting a proven leader would be a terrible mistake. Someone with real experience in government would be frustrated by the utter powerlessness and insignificance of the lieutenant governor's office.

California employers are likely to see their workers' compensation premiums fall again this summer, but not as much as Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi would like. Garamendi issued his semiannual recommendation for workers' compensation rates Wednesday, calling for an 18% cut on policies that start or are renewed July 1 or later. The recommendation isn't binding, however, and insurers appear set on offering smaller premium decreases -- between 12% and 14%.

In the windowless lunch room of the Hi-Ridge Lumber Co. on the outskirts of Yreka, a small group of dust-covered sawmill workers sits around scarred picnic tables. They don't care much for politicians--especially the ones in Sacramento, who seem to cater mostly to the strange and distant problems of urban California--so they're disconcerted to find themselves spending their dinner hour with one.

Citing concerns magnified by the Los Angeles riots, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Tuesday called for national initiatives to prevent insurance companies from discriminating against inner-city areas such as southern Los Angeles. "The civil disturbances in Los Angeles highlighted an ongoing problem," Garamendi said at a news conference as the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners met here. "If Los Angeles is to be rebuilt . . .

November 10, 2004 | Lisa Girion and James F. Peltz, Times Staff Writers

California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Tuesday dropped his opposition to Anthem Inc.'s proposed $18.4-billion purchase of WellPoint Health Networks Inc., paving the way for creation of the nation's largest health insurer. Garamendi, who four months ago called the transaction "one lousy deal for California healthcare consumers" and had used his authority to block it, said he changed his mind after Anthem agreed to make several major concessions.

May 22, 1994 | Cathleen Decker, Cathleen Decker is a political writer for The Times

In the dog days of the campaign for governor, the candidate sitting down to answer questions in the buzzing lobby of a downtown Los Angeles hotel is hurting, literally and politically. Several days before, Insurance Commission er John Garamendi was fixing lights hung in a tree at his Northern California ranch when a branch broke. In the fall, Garamendi broke the smaller bone in his lower right leg, and the resulting ache causes a visible wince.

California Democrats, who excel at backbiting and arm-twisting election year conventions that can leave their candidates wounded, thought they would try something new at this weekend's gathering in Los Angeles: unity. Wrong. The elaborately planned love fest turned nasty Friday within minutes of the convention's opening, at its very first event, which was supposed to be a genteel celebration of the party's women.

For years he had been the state Capitol's perennial governor wannabe, the Democrat with the big handshake and reliable ambition and decades of political seasoning. But now Lt. Gov. John Garamendi appears poised to leave Sacramento. Garamendi, at 64 a man who has spent more than half his life in politics, is heavily favored to win a Bay Area congressional seat in a special election Tuesday. If the votes fall as expected in a district where Democrats have an 18-point registration edge over Republicans, Garamendi will relinquish his post as the state's second-in-command, a job with a big title but few real-world responsibilities.

Democrats auditioning for governor of California stepped one by one onto a Northridge stage Sunday for an opening scene of the campaign to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was Gavin Newsom, the hyper-caffeinated mayor of San Francisco, casting his City Hall record as a progressive model for California, if not the world.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who first ran for governor 26 years ago, announced his third Democratic bid for the office Thursday, saying his decades of experience in state government would allow him to vanquish problems that have eluded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "California is not a movie set, and gridlock is simply not acceptable," Garamendi, 63, said in an announcement outside the Capitol, faulting Schwarzenegger for failing to resolve the state's fiscal problems. "This is real life.

These guys should be running for governor: Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock. They'd make the race a lot more interesting -- less predictable, much closer, more focused, offering a clearer choice of views and visions. Instead, they're competing for the backup job, lieutenant governor. That's a job that shouldn't even exist.

California's largest automobile insurance company said Wednesday that it planned to cut premiums an average of 8% for almost all of its 3 million customers and begin setting rates mostly based on a motorist's driving record. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., which has 12.8% of the market, said it would abandon its opposition to new state rules outlawing the use of ZIP Codes and would comply today.

The automobile insurance industry and California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi have entered a significant legal battle over how to be fair to you. At issue is how to set insurance rates in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory way, a matter so technically complex that it defies imagination, but not politics. In California, an almost incomprehensible mix of factors is used to set rates, which are supposed to reflect an insurer's risk.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Monday proposed California's first regulations to require insurance companies to handle claims in a timely manner. The companies would face fines unless they delivered payment in full to claimants within 10 weeks of receiving proper documentation.

Before Gov. Pete Wilson even begins his second and final term, political maneuvering to replace him in the governor's office in 1998 has gotten under way with John Garamendi becoming the first Democrat to go public with his interest. Garamendi, who lost in the Democratic primary this year to Kathleen Brown, said after a Beverly Hills fund-raising dinner Tuesday that 1994 "was not my time to be governor" but made his interest in another try clear. "Will that occur in the future?

California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi ordered four big insurers Wednesday to justify their home insurance rates, saying he would order cuts if the charges were found to be too high. Garamendi said a Department of Insurance study found that the four companies -- State Farm, Allstate, Farmers and Safeco -- paid out in claims less than 50 cents of each premium dollar taken in last year.

It may be payback time this summer for Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. And Wednesday he came out swinging at the state's insurance industry after emerging victorious from this week's Democratic primary election for lieutenant governor. He blasted the industry's $2 million of preelection advertising attacking his proposal on auto insurance rates and vowed to move quickly this summer to hold hearings aimed at slashing homeowners' insurance bills.